A Question of Nature
by watchingfromtheforest
Summary: The Doctor knew there would be consequences when he slipped the teleport over Rose Tyler's neck. He just never considered this. When Rose Tyler never makes it through to Pete's World, a life is changed and fate is rewritten.


_Reboot in one minute. _

The computerized voice rang out through Torchwood Tower but Rose Tyler ignored it. The Doctor had somehow gotten it into his thick head that she was going to leave him and run off into the parallel world with her mum, Mickey, and Pete.

"I've had twenty years without you, so button it! I'm not leaving her!" Jackie Tyler snapped, tearing her arm away from Pete Tyler as he attempted to drag her toward the rest of the parallel Torchwood agents getting ready for the jump.

Rose felt her resolve sinking. She knew her mother would never leave without her. But how could she selfishly keep her in this London, in an empty flat while the Doctor and herself traipsed the universe? If she went with Pete she could have a comfortable life with a husband who loved her. Rose felt tears prick her eyes at the thought of never seeing her mother again, but she would be so much happier with Pete.

"But you've got to." Rose begged.

"Well that's tough."

She tightened her grip on her mother's hands, willing her to understand. "Mum, I had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor. And… all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us, for the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum."

She smiled softly as she backed away from her mother. "But not anymore, 'cause now he's got me."

A sudden weight dropped onto Rose chest and she turned in time to see the Doctor's blank expression before the world melted around her.

…

Jackie Tyler gasped as she felt her surroundings stabilize. She was in a parallel world, with her parallel husband. She shook those confusing thoughts away, instead focusing on her daughter who would most likely be having a fit. Heaven knows that girl would move mountains for that alien of hers, and Jackie became concerned with how she would take him pushing her into this universe without her consent.

A wave of gratitude washed over the older Tyler woman as she thought of that daft alien and the promise he had made to her back when he had worn leather and seemed to only want to steal her daughter away. He had kept it, even after all this time.

With a small smile, Jackie searched the room for Rose. Mickey and Jake seemed to be in a discussion about the teleports and Pete was talking to some brunette about who knows what. She frowned as she surveyed the room and didn't spot her daughter.

"Did Rose leave?" Jackie called toward Mickey and Jake.

Mickey glanced around. "Where would she have gone?"

Jake look concerned as he too surveyed the room. "Yah know Mrs. Tyler, I don't remember seeing her land."

He turned toward the Director."Pete! Did you see Rose land?"

The Director turned toward the group with a frown. "What are you talking about? You saw the Doctor put it on her and I pushed the button."

Jake nodded. "Yeah, but no one saw her land."

Pete Tyler's face grew pale. "Mickey do a scan."

Mickey hurried over to the computer terminal and began typing away.

"What is he scanning for? What's happened to Rose?" Jackie asked, her voice taking on a hysterical edge.

"We don't know anything yet. We need to first confirm if Rose even landed in this universe."

Jackie nodded, her hand nervously tapping against her thigh.

A beep came from the terminal and Mickey quickly scanned the results that appeared on the screen.

"She didn't land. Only our teleports are accounted for in penetrating the walls of our universe." Mickey said, his fists clenching.

"Mickey," Pete began, "We don't know what happened, she most likely got the necklace off while I pushed the button."

"I don't understand! Someone explain to me what happened." Jackie yelled.

"Rose didn't make it into our universe." He told his parallel wife gently, gripping her shoulders. He turned toward Mickey, "But that doesn't mean she's dead in the void. Do a scan for her teleport."

Mickey did as he was told and once more a beep went off, indicating the desired information had been found.

He sighed in relief at the computer's readings. "Her teleports still relaying a signal, it's not active, but it hasn't been destroyed by the void."

Pete Tyler grinned and turned toward Jackie, "That means that she's safe and didn't get lost in the void while we were crossing. She's with the Doctor Jacks, she fine."

Jackie Tyler nodded, but couldn't shake the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

…

The Doctor ran around the Tardis, pulling levers and punching buttons in zigzag formations. With a cry of triumph, he ran toward the designated spot and the grating and stood on front of the projection camera.

"Rose!" He called, willing the connection to be made. He had spent weeks looking for a hole big enough to travel through, but the only thing he found was a tiny crack, large enough for a single message two minutes in length.

The camera suddenly sparked and the shaky image of a grey beach came into focus, projecting onto the cleared area in front of the Doctor, before fading once more. He quickly fiddled with the lens attempting to bring the beach back into focus. He would make this work. He needed to see Rose one last time, to apologize for sending her to Pete's world without her consent as well as his failure in finding a way to bring her back to universe. His heart felt heavy thinking about the betrayal on her face as their eyes connected a second before she jumped to Pete's world.

"-ose, Doctor?"

The voice of Mickey Smith floated through the console room, causing the Doctor to grin. With a final twist and a zap from the sonic screwdriver, a clear image of Mickey Smith standing on a beach projected onto the console room wall.

"Mr. Mickey!" The Doctor called, checking to make sure his own projection was coming out correctly.

The young man grinned. "You're looking a little fuzzy on this side."

The Doctor frowned, checking the setting on the sonic before buzzing the camera once more.

"I take it you're not really here then."

"Nope, holographic projection. Love to chat about it but unfortunately we only have two minutes so if I could talk to R-"

"Two minutes! Why are we talking to you then?" Jackie Tyler shouted as her image moved into the projection field followed by Pete.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Sorry Jackie, didn't know you had some other parallel visitors higher up on your contact list. Now if I could just talk to-"

"No, you prat, let me talk to Rose."

The Doctor's mouth went slack. "What do you mean talk to Rose?"

"My daughter!"

"Yes, I know who Rose is! I want to know why you think you can talk to Rose through a projection coming from the Tardis." The Doctor asked, voice strained.

Mickey frowned, "You're saying she's not there with you."

The Doctor suddenly felt very sick.

"Did Rose come through to your universe when I slipped the teleport over her head, yes or no?" He demanded.

"No. We thought she must have gotten the thing off before us teleported." Pete explained. "And you're saying that she didn't stay behind with you?"

The Doctor shook his head, panic starting to make his stomach churn. "I watched her teleport, she without a doubt left that plane of time and space. Besides, I sucked everything into the void that was covered in void stuff, I would have seen her go in if she was still somewhere in this universe."

"Doctor.", said Pete quietly. "We had a ninety-nine percent success rate with those teleports." He paused, sharing a look with Mickey. "Back when we had first started to use them, we had an agent who didn't make it back. Our scientists said that some disturbance in the void caused the direct path between the two universes to be severed. It's very likely that that's what happened to Rose."

…

Rose groaned a fierce pounding in her head pulling her from sleep. She turned over to snuggle into her pillow, but the tickling of grass against her nose jolted her from sleep.

_What the? _

Rose glanced around quickly taking in her surroundings, realizing she was most definitely not on the Tardis, and nowhere close to earth.

The grass that had woken her was a deep crimson and it appeared she was in a field of it. Miles and miles in every direction was nothing but red grass and the beating sun. She experimentally plucked a blade from the ground and examined it.

"What are you doing?"

Rose jumped, dropping her piece of grass, before turning toward the voice.

A boy of around four stared up at her with piercing blue eyes.

"Just lookin', Taking in the sights." She said nervously.

The boy nodded, looking doubtful as he looked out toward the winding hills. The slight breeze caught in the child's robes, making the clumsily done knot untie and exposing the vibrant orange undershirt. The boy frantically grabbed the two pieces of his robe and attempted to knot them together.

"Here, let me help you." Rose knelt by the boy and carefully took the ties and double knotted them. The product was a lumpy bulge at the front of his chest, but it would work to keep the robe together.

"Thank you." The boy said gratefully.

Rose nodded, wondering why he was so desperate to keep that robe on, especially with how hot it was.

"It's disrespectful for me to expose myself, especially in front of a lady."

Rose glanced curiously at the mysterious boy, it was almost as if he-

"You were projecting."

"I was what?"

"Projecting your thoughts, you don't have any barriers up." He explained.

"So you're a telepath? Is everyone here a telepath?"

The boy nodded, once again looking out at the grass.

"So, uh. Where is everybody?" Rose asked.

"At the ceremony, that's why I have to wear these." He pinched the robe in disgust.

"Why aren't you at the ceremony?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "It's just a huge pretense; everyone knows who's going to be matched to whom."

Rose decided just to nod, not understanding what the kid was talking about.

The two stared in silence at the grass.

"Where's the closest town?" Rose finally asked, glancing at the strange boy.

He pointed a finger toward the hill behind them.

"Well… it's been fun. You should probably be getting back to your family."

The boy nodded blankly.

Rose shook her head and turned toward the direction he had pointed. If she could just figure out where she was, then she could contact the Doctor.

Wait.

Rose froze as the events at Torchwood unfolded in her mind. He had sent her away. Hadn't even asked, just sent her off for her own good. She glanced down at her blue sweater and frowned. Her teleport was gone.

Brushing off the missing piece of tech, Rose continued her angry trek toward town. She would show that stupid alien a thing or two when he showed up here to pick her up. It wasn't for another ten minutes that Rose finally noticed she had a shadow. Glancing behind her, she was shocked to see the little boy from the field a good thirty feet behind her.

He blinked at her, frowning at their stopped pace.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Come on then!" She called waving him forward.

The boy shook his head. "I am escorting you at a respectable distance."

Rose snorted. "I insist, kid."

With a troubled expression, the boy slowly made his way to Rose's side. With a grin she grabbed his hand, but loosened her grip when she felt it go rigid.

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned.

The boy glanced quickly from his hand to her face.

"Oh. Sorry, s'just a habit I have. Got little cousins." She let her hand go slack, embarrassed at herself for obviously overstepping some cultural lines. However, a tight grip suddenly caught her hand and Rose looked down to see the boy looking anywhere but at her.

She grinned and swung their hands together. "Lead the way then."

The pair started to walk once more in the direction of town, when the boy interrupted the silence.

"What's your name?"

"Rose."

The boy nodded. "That's nice."

"Thanks. What's yours."

" Koschei."

"That's cool. Never heard that before."

* * *

**So this is just something that hit me a few days ago. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. **


End file.
